Is Art School Really Necessary?

A lot of people wonder if an art degree is necessary for an art career. As someone who frequents art forums and community spaces, I must say that three of the most common questions I often see from people when considering their art education is...

1. "Should I go to art school?"

2. "Is art school a waste of time?"

3. "Is art school worth it?"

Many people are questioning the value of art school with regard to a future career. Since you're reading this post, I assume you must have thought of this, as well. So what is the answer?

The simple answer is that it's up to you to decide whether you truly want to pursue an art degree. Because honestly speaking, an art degree isn't necessary for the vast majority of people.

(Would you believe I drew this using only skills I learned online?)

Here are the facts; a degree can make a difference if you're looking for a specific type of job in the art field. Museum curators, art history researchers, professors, and similar jobs revolving around education will typically require a degree. This is because you need to have some level of credentials to justify teaching others.

That said, I'd argue that most people who enroll in an art college aren't doing so because they want to work in a museum or college. Most people want to become animators to work at Disney or fashion designers to create their own brand. Some want to work in gaming or create beautiful paintings.

For those types of careers, let's be honest, a degree is not necessary for most employers or gallery owners. The CEOs and mangers in these businesses are only concerned with one thing...

"Can you do the job to ensure that projects are released on time?"

Can you draw? Can you rig? Can you animate? Can you design? If so, no one is going to even think about whether you had any level of traditional schooling or not. Experience will always outrank anything else in the art world.

The unfortunate truth is that many people spend years sitting through art school only to realize that their degree made no difference in their employment opportunities. In fact, many people often state that they regret going to college to study art, because it provided no benefits toward them getting a job.

(Everything I learned about creating comics came from a $27 course. I learned how to digitally paint environments through free YouTube videos.)

This is another huge issue. Many people are led to believe that going to college for art education is worth it for no reason other than that you're more likely to get a job out of college thanks to their degree. This is yet another false assumption. No matter how much formal education you receive, no one can guarantee that you'll get that dream job. Once you graduate, you're truly on your own.

It should also be known that the world of art related jobs has been very unstable in recent years. Mass layoffs and company closures are more common than ever, leading to a disproportionate amount of artists looking for jobs compared to companies hiring new artists. Young people are graduating art colleges with their degrees in hand only to find out that their opportunities for jobs are extremely limited. This is leading to people accumulating massive amounts of unnecessary debt that they can't pay off because they can't get a job in the field they spent years working toward.

(I painted this entire background digitally in Krita while following along to a Youtuber who painted it traditionally)

I am certain that most people do not want to spend 4+ years in an art college, pursing a degree, racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt only to work in a minimum wage job because it is impossible to get the job they want at a film studio. No one wants to waste their time and money on anything unnecessary.

This post isn't meant to sway anybody one way or the other. Ultimately, it's up to you to decide on how you learn as an artist. That said, if you are someone who wants to have some sort of art based career, please think about the following before you enroll in an art school.

What do you want to do? If your dream isn't to teach art or work in a museum space, I'd pass on the traditional classes. The great thing is that nearly anything you could ever want to learn related to painting, animation, sequential art, fashion design, and more can all be learned online and in many cases for completely free. Youtube is the best resource for learning all things related to art, and there is no shortage of videos across all art fields.

If you want to learn more about deciding if art school is worth it or not, feel free to check out this workshop.